I had the best end of the weekend possible. Last night (Today is Day 14 for our team), I got to have dinner with Celine Cousteau. She has just returned from the Amazon, where she is doing a film with the people that live there. She told us all about it and it is really interesting and important. There are a lot of differences between our cultures and beliefs and theirs that make converting their concerns to Westerns difficult, but there are also some similarities. For example, they can believe in two polar opposite things at once. They deserve to have what they need and want from the Brazilian government, but to do that there has to be understanding.In some ways the same thing applies to the US public's views on climate change. To some people, climate change is not real simply because they believe it is not (I like to call this the Cornelius Fudge analogy), but at the same time they worry about things like storms and heat waves. It is similar to the Amazon situation in that we must bridge gaps to understand each other. We owe it to our world to stop destroying it, but we must reveal the problems we have created with it first.

Jim Toomey, author of Sherman's Lagoon, was also at the dinner. I had a wonderful conversation with him about writing and cartooning. Both are about telling the story. He gave me some really inspiring tips about storytelling. I love his comics, so it was really cool to be able to actually meet him. We got him to draw cartoons on us with a marker!

Giga-pans are really cool. They give an all-around view so that you can basically take a virtual tour. This makes them the perfect resource for learning. Today, Francis took Giga-Pans of the hyperbaric chamber room and of the area beside it.

The way that the Giga-Pan works is it moves the camera around so that it takes pictures of everything around it. Then we stitch the pictures together everywhere they overlap and you end up with something you can basically look at everything around you. Being able to "turn around" helps with the feeling that the viewer is there, especially with the high-quality footage.

We have done lots of Giga-pans of different field sites. These things are so cool! You can see the Giga-pans of places we have researched all over the world here:

www.northeastern.edu/helmuthlab/Research/Gigapan.html

I actually had a part in the brainstorm that rendered the virtual tours using the Giga-Pans. The idea is based off of the maps used in Mario and other 'quest' gaming software. The tours now include pop-ups that can contain additional information (or links to it), closer pictures, or videos. On Monday, Francis will be taking a Giga-Pan of the inside of the habitat. It'll be really cool so stay tuned!

We also have something now called a Go-Pro360. It's a bunch of Go-Pro cameras put together so that you can have a Giga-Pan, but all running at once as video, so that you can look around just like a Giga-Pan, but its video footage! It. is. wicked. awesome. We will be shooting footage with this fabulous device in the water outside of the habitat tomorrow!

﻿The picture was a screenshot I took from a video my dad took of me feeding the tarpon.

Check out what we did today on the Giga-Pans Post, but also, after our long (yet fun and interesting) day was done I got to do another cool thing. The restaurant that we went to was right beside some docks, and at the docks was an option to feed the tarpon. Naturally, we went to go do this. It was really cool. The tarpon don't have teeth, but they have hard plates in their mouths. They don't have the jaw strength to bite off a finger or limb, though. I got a little scraped by some hungry and excited tarpon, but it was totally worth it. They were really big, and really cool.

I woke up this morning and walked into the main room. I went to pick up my stuff from beside the couch and saw an army of ants. Faced by the massive forces of the enemy, I did the only logical thing. I created a mixture of substances known to torture/repel ants and sprayed it all over the floor.

This required science. Thought. Planning. Massacre of ants. So, obviously, my first step was to yell at the ants: "THIS MEANS WAR!". Next, I ran to the cabinet and began pulling down my dangerous anti-ant food substances. It has already been proven that ants hate vinegar, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. So I pulled down Red Wine Vinegar, White Distilled Vinegar, Iodonized salt, and pepper.

I then mixed them all into my Potion of Death (For Ants)

I then sprayed it everywhere that there were ants.

It worked as planned. I wiped it up, along with the dead bodies of the ants, and it was as clean as ever. To prevent future invasion, I armed the borders with a dry mixture of salt, pepper, and cinnamon. I win this battle, ants.

Yesterday was a day off for me. I'd like to say that I took the opportunity to get loads and loads of work done, but really I sat at home and wondered at the amazing footage in the Costeau movies. Being able to see something is a huge part of learning, and thats why field work is so important. Actual data, actual footage, and actual affects from our actions. Next time you, or someone else, is about to do something unsustainable, and thing that it won't make a difference, think again. Our world is being destroyed because of the build-up of small actions.

Yesterday was a very busy day. I spent the day at Mission Control. I got to listen to the stuff going on at the control desk. For the sake of safety, every happening is communicated and coordinated. It was really cool to be able to here the workings of the mission in every stage. The purpose of the research we are conducting is to be better able to understand our undersea world and what we have done to it. Every aspect, especially temperature, is important. Although I am too young to be able to go out in the field, at least I am able to spend my days in the headquarters of the research station we are using.

As you saw, I posted my Day 7 reflection yesterday (although yesterday was Day 8). I also worked a lot with Aileen. A huge part of Mission 31 is getting this information out there, and getting recognition for what is happening to the underwater aspect of our earth. Aileen is trying to spread the general knowledge about our environment through creating a camp. Her camp will be under the general umbrella of EcoAcademy, but also separate. So I helped her with that by figuring out budget, designing T-Shirts, and making Daily Log Journals. I wish that I could also start a Mission 31 Camp for Kids, where we could recreate the kind of research in Mission 31, only so that minors could do it too. Maybe they are already planning something like that! I'll talk to my dad about it!

When we are young, we have more creativity, and less restrictions on the possible. That is a very valuable aspect to science. It is so important to get our generation into this, and what we are doing, because there is so much we can learn. Plus all the science is really fun and really cool.

Yesterday was Day 7 (Mon), and I came to Mission Control to work on the posts. Hence, the helmets post. When I got home, I met Chris, an official photographer, and he told me about the underwater photography he's doing! It's so cool! Above is a picture of the camera he's using. It weighs about 20 pounds so it sinks in the water. It has a magnifying glass that fit The large lights are the flash, and the small ones are used to adjust the lighting for video. The one with the red ring around it can use red light. We can see red light, but because it doesn't penetrate very far into the ocean (hence the blue color because the green and blue wave lengths are the ones left), deep sea creatures can't see red light. So we use the red light to watch them without them knowing that we can see them.

So, there is red light, green light, blue light, and infrared light. We can see red light, green light, and blue light, but not infrared. Our eyes filter it out, the same way the sea creatures filter out the red light. Most of the time, our cameras are made to do the same. Chris, however, changed a Go-Pro so that it would see the infrared light but not the red. He has an infrared flashlight, so he can use that and the camera will be able to see it. Through this process, and a lot of math, he will end up with a photo that can show photosynthesis. This is because, during photosynthesis, plants reflect the infrared light, because it can harm them.

This information is extremely valuable to be able to look (basically) at the amount of energy in something.

He showed me how the camera and light worked by turning on the flashlight in the dark. To the naked eye, it was completely dark, but the camera could see everything that the infrared light shown on. It was so cool!

On Day 2, once I was done talking to Aileen, Francis and I went to the dive museum. It was really cool! They had Mission 31 stuff in the lobby, and a sign about it in the museum! They displayed the steps in human exploration of the oceans in chronological order, so we could walk through and see how technology progressed.

You know how when you turn a cup up-side-down and put it in water the air stays in it? This was the same concept that they used for diving bells, one of the first things used to go underwater. As the passengers breathed, the air inside turned from oxygen to carbon dioxide, so they had a valve to release the stale air. This let more water into the bell, so also helped them time how much time they had left.

Diving bells also had a window to let in light.

They used the same technique to make some of the earliest helmets.

Experienced divers could hold their breath for 6 minutes or so. There was a timing machine there so we tried it... Francis beat the average human (1 minute)!

About in the middle of the exhibit was this really cool wall of helmets!

Look at the difference of these ones to the modern helmet:

This is my favorite helmet:

Look at the difference! The modern helmet is a better shape for the head, while the old helmet is made so that it fits over your head but rests mostly on the shoulders. The new helmet has a bigger viewing window (although no peripheral windows), and the window is better situated to be at eye level. Of course, theres also the REALLY big differences. The helmets that the aquanauts are using have communication in them, so they can talk underwater. I think that is SO COOL! Also, the modern helmets have a plug in so you can breathe, but I don't see an obvious one on the old helmet, if there is one at all. There's also the obvious difference in material. All helmets are heavy to counter the buoyancy of the air in them, but that weight, because its built to counteract, isn't really felt by the divers in the water. Still, mostly due to the shape, the old helmet looks REALLY uncomfortable. My favorite helmet (above) is from Spain. Lets look at some of the American helmets from the same time period!

They're pretty similar, but I think that the American ones are built to be closer around the head- puts less of the weight on shoulders- and it looks like a little more shape was given to the shoulders to make it more comfortable.

Wow... I loved looking at all of the helmets! The Cousteau's have done their missions, and the reefs, methods, and technology have all progressed. Mission 31 upholds that legacy as we look at the changes in our ocean world. It was so cool to see how the technology we used today started and progressed.

Today, my dad, Heather, Sven, and I took a boat out to two different reefs. My dad and I snorkeled, and Heather and Sven dived!

We saw lots of cool stuff: fish, coral, and even some of the sponges the same type as the ones they are studying in the habitat! We also saw sharks. I love snorkeling in places like this because i get to watch the fish and other animals in their natural habitat. The ocean is so important to our world, and that is down to every fish, every little living particle. I feel like a part of the ocean and its wonders when i get to swim alongside them. Evolution gave them their movements. Nature taught them each flick of their tails. I wish I were able to breath underwater... Why is it the only gift humans have been given to survive is our ability to create the unnatural? We have passed the point of using that power for good. I love being able to swim, but I do feel a little like an impostor, with my fake fins and a tube attached to my face so I can breathe. When Jacques Cousteau first did his missions, he dreamed that one day humans would live underwater. Why have we not reached that point? Why is it most people seem more interested in polluting our earth and insisting that global warming isn't real because they refuse to accept it is a problem; instead of learning more about the world we live so we can live with it, learning and surviving? Still, I had fun.

We saw some really cool nurse sharks. I saw one that had some remora swimming alongside it!

These giant brain corals are so cool. It was a giant brain coral that was one of the first prominent things we saw. Those things are HUGE! As big as me, at least! They must be really old to have grown so big. I dove down to look at it, and, after a few tries, managed to get a really close-up look. From looking at it, I had expected it to be fuzzy, maybe even a little squishy, but it looked hard and rough.

I think that the purple thing looks a little like a bonsai tree, only underwater.... Imagination is fantastic. It is the ability to question "what if?". That is why subjunctives are important to our language. The ability to ask "If it were" is why anything was ever invented. This great power exists in small things. The yellow coral reminds me of when I made a brain diagram for science class. My partner and I made a brain cake, and we started by draping the cake with fondant icing. The me, that yellow coral looks like someone did the same, but it wasn't big enough.

This is a ctenophore. These little guys are also known as comb jellies, and they are the largest animals to swim using cilia. Pretty cool, huh? When I first saw it, it floated up towards me and appeared right by my fins. I saw it in my peripheral vision, and it looked like a bubble of goo was just floating along. Naturally, I immediately spun around to look at it closer (really smart of my to automatically move my face close, huh?). It was then that I realized it was a type of jelly, and I scrambled backwards (best as I could in water) in attempt to move away before the current carried me into it. Long story short, I got "shocked" by a tiny little (actually kinda cute) jelly, but not in the usual sense (turns out ctenophores can't sting).

I think this fish looks really cool. I like how the nose is long, yet the body of the fish is very round. It gives the fish a personality to me. Yes, yes, I know I'm strange. But you see it now, don't you? Also, I like how the green is blowing away from it; its like a dramatic scene of this fish emerging from blowing grass. Striding through the meadow, overcoming shyness to stand up to overbearing bully fish... wow, I could write this little guy a biography from this picture!

Looking at this.... it makes me wish that all of reefs are still in their full glory. Thick with life. This has so many corners and hidey-places... imagine all of the wonder that this could be hiding.

I wonder if the fish travel so that they are hiding behind each outcrop as a way to avoid predators... sure looks sneaky....

These are parrotfish! I was so excited to see them because their bright colors make them so easy to identify. They are also pretty big, so that and their colors make them easy to spot and follow. Needless to say, I stalked these fish.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. The bright blue of this fish caught my eye, then I saw that he was nibbling the rocks. I wonder what yummy stuff he's cleaning off of there? He's so... blue. He's like my spirit fish...

This fish to me looks like your typical fish... that is what make it so intriguing. I wonder why the scale part terns are so prominent? I like the way the color fades.. I wonder if each scale is a slightly different shade and that helps this fish hide.

All lined up... are they this way to help them catch stuff in the current?

At first, I thought this was like the fish above ("typical fish"), but check out the yellow eyelids!

These little guys will eat anything! That gives them a great advantage- less competition for food, and it makes them more compatible for habitats.

When I first saw this, I was reminded of the buckets of dried sea stars that are sold at stores by the beaches. Isn't that so sad? The first thing this makes me think of is animals that were killed so they could become decorations!

BRAIINS (you heard nothing...)

What are those three little guys eating, I wonder?

ANGELFISH! We got to see this last fish just before we got on the boat. Only one I saw... Again, yellow eyes!

So... unfortunately I didn't get to do anything on Saturday because the internet was down. My meeting with Aileen got moved to Friday. I do have a list of future blog topics I'm hoping to post: (this is a list I made on Saturday)-Throughout Generations-Helmets-Mangroves-Science With Mark

Author

My name is Morgan Helmuth. My dad is Brian Helmuth, and he is part of the team on Mission 31. I will be working as an embedded teen reporter during the mission, and will post about my experiences on this site! :D